With the online trade having hollowed out the high-street market for physical books, the viability of English bookshops in expensive retail localities has long been precarious. To book lovers, the survivors are like endangered living heritage. It does not take much to push them over the edge. The coronavirus epidemic and the antisocial countermeasures to protect our health have severely tested more resilient retail sectors. So it is no surprise that on top of the business dampener of social unrest, it has proved the last straw for Hong Kong’s oldest bookshop. Swindon Book Company Ltd, a family-owned concern founded in 1918, is moving its operations online from its location in Tsim Sha Tsui. Generations of Hongkongers have grown up with the English bookshop, with its signature marble shopfront and the golden fonts of its name surviving world wars and the city’s boom and bust. It has been part of Hong Kong’s history for more than a century, even as a backdrop in films – another faded feature of the city’s cultural history. Paradoxically, even the city’s popular annual book fair, which showcases the industry to book lovers and many Hongkongers alike, ultimately promoted the offerings of bookshops’ online competitors. This year’s fair, too, succumbed to the virus, being postponed because of the difficulty in implementing anti-infection measures. Industry sources say the publishing and bookstore business had been hard hit since the anti-government protests erupted in June last year. According to one, overall business fell by up to 80 per cent. Hong Kong’s oldest bookshop Swindon to close after decades Silent testimony to the plight of bookshops is to be found in a High Court writ served on Swindon demanding HK$3.71 million in unpaid rent, which said Swindon had begun delaying payments in 2014. The news of Swindon’s closure follows those of several chains in recent years, including Page One, the Australian chain Dymocks and, most recently this year, the Singapore-based chain Popular. Swindon, long a key supplier of school textbooks, will continue to sell on its website. It is not all bad news for bookworms who like to browse. Swindon’s affiliate stores, Hong Kong Book Centre in Central, and Kelly & Walsh in Pacific Place, will remain open.